Antec touts pricey home-theater PC case

Most of us like our home-theater PCs small, quiet, and power-efficient. That said, some folks believe consoles are for unwashed peasants, and they'd rather have a high-end gaming PC in their living room. Surprisingly, Antec seems to be targeting its new "premium home theater PC case" at just such a crowd.

Gaze upon the Fusion Remote Max, and you might mistake it for a typical HTPC case—Antec has applied a discreet, piano-black paint job, and the aluminum front bezel boasts both a volume-control knob and an LCD display. A quick look at the case's specs should quickly dispel any illusions, however. Antec has made this baby big enough to accommodate full ATX motherboards, and it's fashioned a "triple-chamber structure" to splits up the mobo, power supply, and hard drives. With seven expansion slots at the back, Antec says there's even room for dual graphics cards.

The Fusion Remote Max shouldn't disappoint on the storage front, either: it can take up to four hard drives (albeit with only a single 5.25" external bay), and it features FireWire and external Serial ATA ports at the front. A 140 mm side fan and a 120 mm rear exhaust fan take care of cooling, and users will be able to fit a second 120 mm fan at the front. Finally, Antec hasn't forgotten about actual media-center PC fans, because it bundles the enclosure with a 56-button remote and iMedian software that helps you "navigate stored media, adjust settings and instantly play music, videos and other programs."

This abundance of features does come at a price. For one, the case is bulky—Antec quotes dimensions of 17.8" x 7" x 17.6" (45.3 x 17.8 x 44.6 cm). Also, the $249.95 suggested retail price makes this product more expensive than some of Antec's fancier desktop cases.